CPS Elementary Students Make Gains in Literacy and Math for 2022-23 School Year

 

CPS Elementary Students Make Gains in Literacy and Math for 2022-23 School Year

District Investments in Interventionists, Counselors, Coaches, and Classroom and Curricular Enhancements Produce Highest Year-Over-Year Gains Since 2016

CHICAGO –  School leaders, teachers, staff and students at Wendell E. Green Elementary School showcased some of the strategies and practices that are helping the South side school make academic gains on state assessments, most noticeably in English Language Arts but also in math, at Green and across Chicago Public Schools (CPS). The District’s intentional focus on core classroom strategies, from adding an interventionist to support students at every school to adding lead instructional coaches to improve teaching practices, is helping elevate student academic growth on local and state assessments.

“Our students have demonstrated time and time again that they are able to achieve great things both in and outside our classrooms,” said CPS CEO Pedro Martinez. “Our investments in classroom resources, support, and instruction have yielded the biggest year-over-year gains since 2016 and I am incredibly proud of our students and educators for the growth our students have shown over the past year.”

Following classroom tours, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez and Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova joined Principal Tyrone Dowdell and Hale Elementary School Principal Dawn Iles-Gomez to talk about some of the most impactful classroom practices that are contributing to student academic growth. The  2022-23 Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) results show that CPS saw a nearly six (5.9) percentage point growth in students meeting or exceeding expectations on the English Language Arts (ELA) IAR exam, returning to pre-pandemic levels, and a nearly three percentage point gain (2.6) on the Math IAR. Overall, 428 out of 491 (87 percent) of elementary schools administering this assessment increased the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations in ELA while 359 out of 491 (73 percent) of schools increased the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations in math.

During the 2022-23 school year, CPS made strategic investments as part of the District’s Three-Year Blueprint to ensure that students had the resources and support to learn, grow, and succeed academically, socially, and emotionally. These investments included:

Reducing class sizes by hiring additional teachers and paraprofessionals,

Focusing on academic interventions with the support of interventionists at every school,

Supporting student mental and physical health and wellbeing with the addition of nurses, social workers, counselors and other behavioral health supports,

Expanding access to high-quality curriculum through the expansion of the District’s Skyline curriculum, and

Increasing opportunities for teacher professional development.

These investments allowed educators and school leaders to enhance their practices and improve instruction and learning in math and literacy, resulting in strong growth in both ELA and math during the 2022-23 school years. The data show progress among certain populations, with Black and Asian students showing the strongest growth between 2021-22 and 2022-23, nearly returning to pre-pandemic performance levels.

There are several ways that CPS is providing targeted additional support and resources to schools in our most under-resourced neighborhoods. This includes adding instructional coaches, counselors and tutors to schools with the greatest needs for academic and social-emotional support. The District has also invested in more professional development for teachers that focuses on implementing grade level, standard-based unit training and support for developing identity, community, and relationships. Since last school year, CPS has added more than 170 special education teachers and more than 600 special education classroom assistants and the District’s 2023-24 budget will provide an unprecedented increase of more than $120 million specifically to the Office of Diverse Learner Supports and Services (ODLSS) to equip ODLSS teams and educators with the resources and support they need to provide a high-quality education for Diverse Learners.

In the past year, 268 District-run schools have added a lead coach solely dedicated to developing teacher pedagogy. Coaches work with teachers and other staff to strengthen current instructional practices and ensure student engagement. CPS Lead coaches provide teachers with data-driven instructional coaching and consulting to help improve classroom instruction. Together, coaches and teachers analyze and then make data-driven decisions as to what a teacher can do to drive student learning.

To support core instructional priorities, CPS allocated an additional $72 million for teaching positions for every District-managed school during the 2022-23 school, including staffing an interventionist at every school. School-based interventionists, like Teresa Martinez Garcia at Hale Elementary, ensure that students receive academic support and interventions that meet their unique skill needs. Interventionists work with teachers and the school’s Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports (MTSS) team to analyze student data, understand student needs, and implement intervention plans aligned with those needs.

  

Latest Stories

Latest Podcast

STARR Community Services International, Inc.